• Published 8th Oct 2015
  • 15,838 Views, 963 Comments

Hollow Shades - Dilos1



Something new lurks within the wilds of Equestria. Something monstrous.

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Negotiations

'Okay, gotta be honest here,' Angela thought as she gently poked at the pony in front of her. 'That was not quite the reaction that I was expecting to get.'

When the pony had fainted right in front of her, Angela had initially been alarmed by it, thinking that his injuries were more grievous than they appeared to be. That concern was quickly alleviated when she saw that he was still breathing, albeit a little unsteadily, signifying that he was thankfully not dead. He was just a pansy. In her opinion the least he could have done was stay awake long enough to see that she was not going to eat him.

Angela sighed as she shook her head in exasperation, resigning herself to the fact that if she was going to convince this pony that she she did not mean any harm, then she was going to have to wait until he eventually woke up again, whenever that would be. She hoped it would be soon, as she did not want to wait around in one place out in the open where she could be easily spotted. On top of that, she still had yet to acquire something to satisfy her ever growing hunger. It was becoming progressively harder to think straight as the minutes ticked by, and every part of her being was telling her to hunt and feed as soon as possible. Angela was able to ignore her urges, for the time being anyway, knowing that her best and possibly her only chance of convincing the ponies that she was more than just a mindless monster was sitting right here in front of her.

In an effort to distract herself from her hunger, Angela took to examining a piece of the pony's armor, which she held between two of her claws as she laid down on the ground on her stomach with her tails still partially submerged in the pool, resting her head on her other hand. She imagined that this was hardly normal for a wraith to do, and would have made for quite the sight as she looked at the little golden helmet, turning it over occasionally to get a better look at it. She wondered if maybe this pony was some sort of hunter, like that griffin from earlier. She quickly discounted that as being very likely however, as he seemed woefully unprepared and unequipped to take much of anything down, much less something like her. As ineffective as they were the griffin seemed to have everything from smoke bombs to traps, while all this pony had was his horn and the armor on his back.

Upon discarding that possibility, Angela was led to surmise that this pony was in fact part of a larger group somewhere nearby. She was able to vaguely recall from the few instances when she had seen the show occasionally seeing some ponies wearing armor that was either exactly the same or at least similar to what this pony was wearing. In most of those cases, at least one of their Princesses were present, leading Angela to assume that they might be in the area as well. Where they were, Angela did not know, and she did not recall seeing any other ponies with this one, although he may have just been a straggler that wandered off for some reason. The reason as to why they would be here was all too obvious to Angela, and she felt a certain amount of shame in herself that she had made herself seem dangerous enough to warrant such a response.

The fact that she still had yet to come up with a means to effectively communicate with them only made it even more of a dilemma for her to overcome, despite the issue constantly being on her mind. Right now she guessed that her best bet was to wait for the pony to wake up and then somehow try to convince him she meant no harm.

'That shouldn't be too hard I guess,' Angela thought. 'I mean, all I would have to do is not attack him. . . again. That should get my point across.'

Unfortunately that required him to be conscious, which he was currently not doing a very good job at.

'Lazy bum. All I did was rough you up a little and scare you half to death.'

Shifting her body a little on the sandy shore to make herself more comfortable, Angela set the helmet on the ground before resting her head on her folded arms, scratching at that same bothered area on her neck with the side of one of her four meter long claws as it flared up again. The discomfort had thankfully gone down considerably in the last few hours or so, yet it still remained as a constant irritation that was just short of being a literal thorn in her side. No matter what she did to assuage it, it persisted, making Angela wonder what had even caused it in the first place. She though back to when it had first started, the earliest point being her first actual encounter with the griffin and those two ponies, right before her memories became somewhat muddled from evolving.

Before she could dwell on the matter for very long however, Angela heard among the ever present roar of the waterfall and the rustle of leaves the distinct sound of a twig snapping, interrupting her thoughts. She briefly glanced at the pony in front of her, wondering if he was finally waking up. He was still unconscious however, and aside from his quiet breathing he made no noise to speak of, so it was not him who made it. As she looked at him Angela sharpened senses picked up a faint odor in the air. With a quick sniff she recognized it as belonging to a pony. Or rather a whole group of them.

Angela's felt her spines stand up a little bit straighter in anxiousness upon this realization, and she began to survey the woods, on the lookout for anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

Another snap came from somewhere to her left, and Angela was starting to feel more than a little on edge when she could not find anything that stood out among the trees and undergrowth. In contrast to this the scent seemed to be getting stronger, as though it were coming from all around her.

They were here. She knew they were here, yet she could not see them for some reason, even with the moons light shining down from above. She would have though that with their armor, considering just how bright it was, they would have stuck out in the foliage like a sore thumb. At the very least she should have heard the occasional clank of metal. Somehow, they were hidden from her sight as well as much of her hearing. The only reason she knew of their presence at all was their smell, which seemed to be growing steadily stronger with every second that passed, and Angela could not help but feel more than a little nervous at the implications of it.

Then all of a sudden, a dozen or so small points of light appeared, bathing the area in a rainbow of color. Along with them multiple unicorns clad in regal golden armor appeared as well, seemingly fading into existence less than a dozen feet before her, and Angela suddenly realized that the reason she could sense but not see them was because they had somehow rendered themselves invisible to her sight. Angela snarled in surprise at their sudden appearance, but she made sure to keep herself in check so she did not attack them out of instinctual response.

The unicorns however did not seem willing to extend that same courtesy to her as they each lowered their heads in unison, pointing their spiral horns straight at her, and within moments a volley of multicolored bolts of magic came hurtling towards her at high speed. Angela was barely able to bring up her two right arms to shield herself from the onslaught before it made contact.

'Hey! What are you doing! I'm not-' Angela stopped when she noticed that the bolts were actually doing very little to cause any harm to her. Their effects ranged from streams of fire to spears of ice to little bolts of electricity, and yet none of them seemed to be doing much more than mildly sting her. It was like someone were throwing thistles at her if Angela were to be completely honest. Realizing that she was not in any immediate danger, Angela lowered her arms, allowing the bolts to strike her square on her torso. Even then the bolts did very little in the way of any actual harm.

'Um. . . okay,' Angela thought, wondering if this was really all there was to the ponies plan to combat her. If so then what did she have to be concerned about, when they could barely scratch her? Evidently the ponies also saw how much, or rather how little, of an effect that their magic was having on her, and soon enough the barrage ceased entirely as silence once pervaded the area. Angela was unable to keep herself from chuckling a little when she saw them looking at her with wide eyes, each of them no doubt thinking that they had just screwed themselves, her laughter sounding like sandpaper scraping against itself.

Her amusement was suddenly cut short however when she heard a shout from within the trees order, "Open fire!", and a loud 'ka-chunk' echoed through the woods which was immediately followed by a feeling of sharp pain in her left shoulder, catching her completely off guard as she shrieked and reeled backwards from the unexpected sensation. Glancing at the affected area, Angela found a metal rod a little shorter than the length of her forearm sticking out of her flesh. It felt very much like a hypodermic needle had been unceremoniously shoved into her skin. To make matters worse the unicorn had resumed firing spells at her, and while it was more of a distraction than anything else, Angela nevertheless felt herself becoming highly agitated by their aggression.

Ignoring them for the moment to deal with the rod, Angela ripped it out of her with a quick yank, allowing a thin stream of dark blood to leak out of the fresh wound, causing her to utter a shrill cry loud enough to force the ponies to stop and cover their ears. Once it was finally out Angela glared at it for a split second, hissing with distaste upon seeing the barbed tip of the shaft coated in her own blood, before flinging it away, forcing a number of the ponies to dive out of the way to avoid the projectile.

'What the hell is wrong with all of you?!' Angela thought, punctuating it with a snarl. 'Can't any of you see that I'm-'

Angela was unable to finish her thought before a pony that was hidden from her sight yelled out, "Don't stop now! Keep firing! Bring that thing down!"

Not a moment later the armored unicorns shook off their momentary disorientation and resumed shooting spells at her. In addition three more metal spears came flying toward her from seemingly nowhere. One of them missed her by a number of feet as it soared past her head before plummeting harmlessly into the pool behind her. The other two met their mark however, and Angela hissed in pain as they buried themselves into her leg and torso. The one on her leg went deep enough that she felt its tip scrape against bone. This only served to further intensify the feeling of complete torture as Angela felt waves of agony shoot through her.

The worst thing about the whole ordeal was that no matter how Angela wanted to fight back, to let her more feral side take over and direct her actions to force the ponies to stop hurting her, she knew that the second she did so she wold lose control. No matter what she could not let that happen.

Angela clutched her head between her claws as she fought her own primal urges for dominance, struggling to remain in control of herself. The spells were inconsequential. The spears meant nothing. None of it really hurt she kept telling herself. None of it would ever be able to kill her. At this point in time that piece of logic was the only thing keeping Angela from losing herself to the wraith, the real wraith, and she hung onto it like a drowning man would hold onto a lifeline.

That lifeline was worn all the thinner when the unicorns started to fire exclusively lightning spells at her, and soon multiple arcs of white hot electricity erupted from their horns, each one of them drawn to the metal spears embedded in her side. Instantly pain unlike anything she had ever felt before surged through her veins like molten lead.

'Stop. . .'

Angela felt her limbs begin to tremble as the currents continued to pour into her ceaselessly. The torment was without end, and the war that Angela was waging within herself suddenly tipped very far out of her favor. The wraith was coming out, and if this kept up it would never be stopped.

'Stop. . .'

Her cries of pain and anguish morphed into ferocious snarls and hisses of rage and anger, and blood lust began to pervade her thoughts along with a desire to kill all those who had wronged her. Who had misunderstood her. Who had dared to tried to kill her, not knowing that they had brought their own doom upon them.

"That's it! Keep it up, I think it's working!"

Angela opened her mouth wide, baring her rows of needle sharp teeth. She raised her saber like claws above her, like bony guillotines about to fall. She crouched low, and-

"CEASE!"

The voice seemed to have came from all around as it thundered through the trees, and immediately afterward a beam of incandescent blue light from above appeared between them, slicing through the bolts of lightning like a knife through string and carving a swath on the ground, finally allowing Angela to regain control before she lost herself. Her breathing was heavy and her limbs trembled as she struggled to keep herself from falling to the ground. When she had recovered enough her attention was drawn upward as she searched the starlit sky for what had helped her. She immediately caught sight of a large pony with midnight blue fur dressed in glistening silver regalia. Unlike the other ponies she possessed both wings and a horn which had an orb of brilliant white light at its tip, allowing everyone on the ground to see the grim expression on her muzzle.

As Angela looked at her in a mixture of wonder and confusion, Angela got the distinct feeling that she had seen her before. Not from when she was still human, but much more recent. She remembered hearing that same voice not too long ago from somewhere.

Suddenly the pony tucked in her wings slightly, and descended quickly in a tight spiral. Angela noticed that trailing behind her were six more ponies that were also clad in silver armor. She also saw that instead of feathers their wings more closely resembled those of a bat. With an audible thud the large pony's hooves met the ground, her entourage following suite. As soon as Angela saw her up close she was finally able to associate a name with her.

'Isn't that-'

"Princess Luna! You're here!" one pony exclaimed in surprise and relief. "For a little while we didn't think you would come and help-"

"Be silent!" the Princess ordered, her voice bellowing like a roll of thunder, startling even Angela a little. The pony she addressed quickly shut his mouth, faltering under the harsh gaze that she was casting at him and his fellows. Her wings remained unfurled, and she held her head high, giving her a rather intimidating presence as she stood between them like a wall of absolute authority. Then the Princess turned her head, and her gaze landed on Angela, who noticed that there was something distinctly different about the way she was looking at her. There was no anger or fear in her eyes. Instead Angela saw in them a sort of perplexed curiosity, like the Princess was not at all sure what to think of what she was seeing before her.

Without any warning the Princess took a single, cautious step towards Angela, as the light from her horn faded out of existence, once again bathing the area in the light of the moon. The moment she did almost every single pony behind her began to cry out in alarm, each of them yelling things like "Princess Luna, be careful!" and "Get away from that thing! It'll attack you!", as well as "Oh sweet Celestia I can't watch!".

They were all rendered silent in an instant when Luna cast them a glare from over her shoulder. Angela could not help but feel impressed by the authority she so obviously possessed over them. When all was quiet once again Luna returned her attention to Angela, and for a few long moments the two just stared at each other, until Luna's horn ignited in a soft blue glow, and Angela felt a strange yet soothing sensation wash over her that she had difficulty describing. The closest comparison she could make was as if the world had adopted a surreal dream like quality. It only lasted a few short seconds until the feeling vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving Angela perplexed as she shook her head slightly, wondering what had just happened.

"It was you," Luna said unexpectedly, her stern expression morphing int one of surprise, her eyes full of wonder and confusion. Angela was just confused, and she showed it with a slight tilt of her head.

'Huh?'

Stepping even closer to her, the Princess seemed to be at a complete loss for words as she opened and closed her mouth several times like she was about to speak, yet was unable to do so.

"Well this complicates things a bit," she finally said.


As Princess Luna gazed upward at the creature that towered over her, she was busily trying to sort out her thoughts on what she had just discovered. A small part of her wanted to disregard the very notion of the idea as ludicrous, to call the mere possibility of it downright laughable. However the evidence that completely shattered that notion was standing, or rather floating right here in front of her, and eventually Luna came to accept the reality that the dreams, the horrific nightmares that had been echoing across the realm of dreams for the past few days were not being caused by the creature at all as she had originally suspected. Instead, it was the creature itself that was being plagued by them.

It truly did complicate matters quite a bit, as she had just stated. Her obligation to deal with what could possibly be a serious threat to the ponies of Hollow Shades was met by her desire to lend assistance to it.

When Luna had first received the signal that the creature had been found and was actively being engaged via an information transference spell, she had immediately set off in the appropriate direction. When she first caught sight of the creature over the treetops, Luna found herself awestruck by it. It was so completely alien to anything else she had ever seen in Equestria. Even her brief excursions into the uncharted west had never yielded anything quite as exotic and deadly in appearance as this beast. Eventually her moment of awe soon passed, and Luna had resumed her course, ready to join the fray, expecting to find a one sided battle with the broken and mutilated bodies of multiple ponies littered around the creature.

What she had found instead was the creature surrounded on all sides, doing almost nothing as spells pelted its hide and spears launched by the hidden arbalists skewered into its leathery flesh. And as she had been watching the scene from above, wondering if her assistance was really needed, she had detected the unmistakable presence that was the source of the nightmares. Following her relief and finally finding the troubled soul was immediately replaced by utter confusion followed by alarm when she pinpointed where it was coming from.

And now here she was, staring upward in barely contained bewilderment at the creature as it gazed at her in turn. At least she thought it was looking at her. It possessed no eyes to speak of, so all she had to determine that it was indeed looking at her was the direction in which its head was pointed. It was trembling slightly as it stared at her, and Luna took notice of the many injuries it had sustained, from the accumulated scratches and burns from the spells to the large metal spears that protruded from different areas of its body. The most impressive wounds that Luna saw were a trio of large bite marks along its spine.

Luna concluded that whatever this creature was, it was a magnet for trouble.

Next to the creature Luna could not help but notice the immobile form of a pony laying down on the sand with most of his armor stripped off. When she saw it she felt her heart rate quicken a tiny bit, and she once again looked to the creature responsible. She knew she should have expected at least a few casualty when dealing with something that could kill celestial beasts, but it was still a blow to Luna to know that a pony had lost their life in the skirmish.

Apparently choosing to ignore her for the moment, the creature turned away and began to tend to its wounds, starting by removing the spears embedded into its flesh. Letting curiosity take a hold of her, Luna took a cautious step forward. The moment she did however, the creature turned its eyeless gaze back towards her and let out a low, feral hiss. It was an unmistakable demand to back off, one which Luna complied with as she slowly retreated as she lit up her horn.When the creature did not pursue after her she allowed her horn to dim again. The creature did not seem to care at the moment as it snorted once before resuming its task. The ponies behind her bristled at the sound, readying their weapons until Luna motioned for them to stop with a wave of her hoof.

Once she was in the company of the Royal Guard again, with what seemed to be a hundred ponies huddling around her, forming a barrier between her and the creature, Luna found herself confronted by none other than captain Stalwart, who kept glancing between her and the creature, as though he were unsure which one required his attention more.

"Your highness," he said, his voice barely above a whisper as he spoke, "May I be so bold as to ask what exactly your plan is here."

Luna refrained from answering the question right away, as she herself was at somewhat of a loss as to what their next course of action would be. She could tell what almost everypony else, Stalwart included, had in mind. Every unicorn had their horn alight in preparation to fire off an attack spell at the creature, and even though she was unable to see them due to a light filtering spell, something that she was fairly new to the concept of since her return, her ears detected the commotion of more ponies loading up the arbalists for another volley.

The creature however seemed to be ignoring them for the most part, or at least it appeared to be trying to as it occasionally glanced at them while it continued to tend to its wounds. Luna just watched silently as it wrapped its enormous claws around one of the spears, pause, then swiftly pulled it out. It hissed loudly before casually tossing the spear into the pool next to it.

"Princess Luna?" Stalwart said, growing more anxious by the second.

Finally Luna responded by asking a question of her own.

"Captain Stalwart," she said, her eyes still glued to the beast, "what was the creature doing when you found and proceeded to engage it?"

At first Stalwart was confused, as he obviously had not expected such a response from Luna. "Well," he began after gathering his thoughts, "we actually found it just sitting here on the bank doing nothing, right after Hammer Hoof came back and told us that she and Willow were caught off guard by it. It was the perfect opportunity to bring it down before it could do anymore harm."

"I see. . ." Luna answered, thinking over what she had just learned. "So instead of awaiting my arrival as you should have done, you saw fit to disobey that order and put even more ponies in danger by confronting the creature, even after what I had already told not only you but everypony else here what it might be capable of?"

"What?!" Stalwart exclaimed before he quickly lowered his voice, likely out of fear of unintentionally offending her as well as trying not to draw the creatures attention. "But you Highness! That thing already attacked one of our own without provocation! It killed Willow! How do you expect us to respond to something like that?"

Fixing a stern glare on the captain, Luna said in a warning tone, "I expect you to do as you have been instructed, Stalwart, lest you desire to have your current rank removed on the grounds of insubordination." Stalwart had his mouth agape as he struggled to articulate some sort of response or justification.

Before Luna could go any further she noticed that a very large shadow had come over them, obstructing them from the light of the full moon. She turned her head and looked upward straight into the face of the creature as it peered at her. Eyes or no, it was looking a her specifically, and suddenly she felt very vulnerable. She ignited her horn, ready to defend herself from it if need be. Whether or not it was the being she was seeking to aid, the fact remained that it was still a dangerous creature that if given the chance could tear her head off like a cork from a wine bottle. Around her, she could see many ponies doing the same thing as they prepared themselves to defend their Princess.

The attack never came however. Instead the creature extended one of its arms, showing that it had something resting in its gigantic palm. It was the dead Pony that Luna saw. Except there was an additional detail that she had missed when she had first seen him.

The pony was breathing. His sides were steadily rising and falling in a clear indication of vitality. Luna almost could not believe what she was seeing, and she felt a phenomenal amount of relief at knowing there had been no casualties. Stalwart, along with everypony present, seemed to be equally shocked when they saw and heard what they had presumed to be a fallen comrade taking in breath after breath.

Slowly and gently, as though it were holding a newborn foal, the creature lowered the pony to the ground before Luna. It showed an amount of gentleness that Luna would have never expected from such a creature. When the pony was on the ground the creature uttered a quiet hiss before backing away a little bit. Then suddenly, appearing as little more than a whitish blur in the night, the creature swiftly turned around faster than anything its size should be able to. Caught off guard by the unexpected movement, the entirety of the Royal guard behind Luna opened fire upon it. However the creature was too swift, easily avoiding their attack as it dove head first into the pool in a great splash of water.

"Stop this instant!" Luna bellowed at them. Immediately upon hearing her command, they all stopped, although Luna supposed it hardly mattered at this point. The creature was already gone anyway, the only indication it had ever been there being the slight rippling of the waters surface, until even that faded. Sighing heavily, Luna cast a scathing glare at the ponies before swiftly trotting over to inspect the unconscious pony.

Stooping down Luna examined the pony, she saw that he was a fairly young stallion. She also saw that he had sustained multiple injuries ranging from deep cuts created by his bent armor to a broken leg that would probably take weeks, maybe even a few months to heal completely. Aside from those however, he was alive. Looking towards one of her guards she quickly ordered, "This pony needs medical attention. Go find somepony here who can attend to him." She received a sharp salute before the thestral darted away on his errand. Not a minute had passed before he returned with a unicorn and a pegasus, both of them mares bearing armor decorated with emblems indicating their role as healers. The unicorn wasted no time as she lit up her horn and enveloped the injured pony in a veil of dark green magic. The points where his wounds seemed most grievous glowed slightly brighter. Upon seeing them the pegasus removed small oblong stones covered in circular markings from a satchel before placing them on the affected areas. Satisfied, the unicorn gently lifted him upward and began to carry him away with the pegasus following close behind.

Satisfied that the pony was now in good hooves, Luna allowed herself a moment to gather her thoughts before returning her attention to the creature. It appeared to have not moved during the entire ordeal, and seemed to be waiting patiently for something. Piece by piece, Luna began to put together what was happening here, and she once again started to approach the waters edge. Before she could take more than a few steps she found her path blocked by Stalwart.

"Princess," he said, "I don't know what you are up to, but I cannot in good conscience allow you to go anywhere near that thing."

Sighing heavily, Luna answered, "I do not intend to sound condescending captain, but if there is anypony here who is the most capable of defending themselves from this "thing" as you have so eloquently put it, then it would be me. Besides," she added, "I feel that this creature does not intend to do anypony harm. After all, it gave Willow back to us alive."

"Are you kidding me?" Stalwart replied. "I don't care if it took on Tirek, that thing is a monster, and it needs to be-"

"That is enough Stalwart," Luna interrupted him, giving him a warning look. "Perhaps you failed to take notice due to your apparent need to prove yourself a stallion, but that creature just returned one of our own to us." Stalwart opened his mouth to utter some sort of retort, but Luna silenced him with a raised hoof. "Captain," she said, "I understand that you are only trying to fulfill your duty, but right now I do not believe this situation will be resolved through fighting this creature."

"Well then what do you propose we do then? Talk to it and hope its friendly?" Stalwart asked, sounding incredulous.

"Actually, yes," Luna answered in a matter of fact tone before she walked past him. Her guards made to follow until she said to them, "Nay, stay where you are. I believe I will be better received if I am by myself." Her guards quickly bowed in deference to her command. Stalwart sighed heavily and shook his head before trotting away. Luna saw him conversing with a few other ponies in a hushed tone. As much as she wanted to know what the nature of their conversation was, Luna felt it could wait until after she had dealt with the creature.

Luna casually walked up to the pools edge. Despite her outward demeanor, she was actually quite nervous as she approached the edge of the pool. Even if it turned out that this creature did not intend any harm, the fact remained that it was still a potentially dangerous entity that could pull her head off of her body like a cork from a wine bottle if it felt so inclined. For that reason, Luna saw fit to quickly cast a barrier spell around herself to protect her from harm.

Luna sincerely hoped it would never have to come to that as she came to a halt, her hooves mere inches away from the waters edge. The water itself was completely still, and gave no indication that a creature large enough to rival an adult dragon was hiding beneath the surface. Feeling slightly unsure of how exactly to proceed, Luna simply stood there for a little while as she contemplated what she was going to do.

Finally, Luna decided to do the only thing she really could at the moment and cleared her throat to speak. Her voice fueled by magic, Luna spoke using the traditional royal Canterlot voice.

"Beast," she shouted, her voice ringing loud and clear into the night and across the waters surface. "I am Princess Luna of Equestria. I am here not to fight you, but to see if we can strike an accord of peace between us. I give you my word as a Princess that you will not be harmed any further should you choose to show yourself. What say you?"

Finished with her proposal, Luna allowed her magic to dissipate as it faded into silence. For what felt like a good long while, even though realistically it was actually a few minutes, Luna waited anxiously by the pool, wondering if the creature would even heed her. After a few more minutes she started to wonder if it was even able to understand her. She could faintly hear behind her back a few ponies conversing with each other. While she could not make out what exactly was said between them, she could tell that the general consensus was that her course of action was unlikely to work.

Still, Luna waited. She would wait as long as she needed to if it meant even the smallest possibility that a life could be saved.


Hidden within the depths of the pool, suspended in mid-water like a phantom, Angela silently contemplated what she had just heard. The Princess's proposal was very tempting for the wraith to accept, and she wanted nothing more than come out of hiding and finally put an end to this nightmare. But there was one thing holding her back. Actually that was not entirely true. There were many things holding her back, most of them waiting up there, spells charged and spears ready to fire at her at the earliest opportunity. And Angela knew within herself that if she gave them even the slightest reason to mistrust her, they would not hesitate to try and bring her down. But what she was afraid of most was that she would bring them down with her.

She had already narrowly avoided losing herself to the wraith once. The only reason she was able to rein herself in was because Luna had intervened just in time. If it happened again, Angela knew that there would be nothing to stop her from falling this time. She knew that even the smallest provocation would send her over the edge, falling eternally into a pit of her own pain and anguish that she would be very hard pressed to climb out of again, if she even could.

Angela trusted the Princess. She trusted that Luna would not be the one to antagonize her. What she did not trust was herself and the army of ponies waiting for her.

However, Angela knew that this was now probably her only chance to make peace, if not with herself then at least with them. With this in mind, she slowly swam up to the surface. Gradually she rose up out of the depths, hovering over the water as her wet skin glistened in the moonlight. The ponies before, the Princess included, backed away slightly upon seeing her approach. Angela tried to make herself appear as nonthreatening as she possibly could as she drew near, but given the body she inhabited that was next to impossible for her to accomplish, and it showed as multiple ponies backed away. Fear and trepidation showed clearly in their eyes, and she could tell they were trying very hard not to disobey the order of the monarch and attack her out of fright. The only one who did not appear to be as afraid was Luna herself, and even she looked more than a little intimidated as she took a few cautious steps backward.

Feeling that was close enough, Angela came to a stop in front of Luna, where she waited patiently for the other to do something, fully aware that she could be mere moments away from being attacked. The Princess seemed to be somewhat at a loss for words as she opened and closed her mouth several times, looking sort of like a fish gasping for oxygen as she struggled to find words. Eventually, after quietly clearing her throat multiple times she was able to speak.

"W-well. . . hello there," she said, clearly nervous with the wraith looming over her.

Unsure how else to respond, Angela replied with a short wave of her clawed hand. Movement caused more than a few ponies to begin charging their horns, until Luna quickly cut them off with a reprimanding look. One by on the ponies dimmed their horns, appearing reluctant to do so.

"My apologies," Luna said, drawing Angela's attention back to her. "You really must forgive them, as my ponies can be quite jumpy in the presence of something as. . . different as you."

'Was that meant to be a compliment?' Angela thought.

Once again clearing her throat, Luna began to speak in a soft tone. "Now then. . . I feel that it is only proper that we introduce ourselves properly. As I have already mentioned, I am Princess Luna. Can you tell who you are?"

'Highly agitated because I can't exactly talk even though you expect me to is what I am, thank you very much.' Angela punctuated her inner ramblings with a series of chittering grunts and hisses. Luna frowned when she heard them, having of course not understood one bit of it.

Angela knew that this was going to be a problem from the very start. What she had yet to do however was come up with a way to overcome their language barrier, else they would remain at an indefinite impasse. She sighed heavily as she glanced at the army of ponies waiting behind Luna. Looking over them, her sight landed on the deep furrow in the soil created when Luna had intervened a short while ago. The ground was scorched as if by fire, and Angela could not help but wonder what it would have done to her had the Princess chosen to join the fray against her. It was not a particularly comforting thought.

However, as she looked at it, Angela suddenly realized that there was something that she could do to communicate, and she mentally kicked herself for not thinking of it a long time, when in hindsight it should have been blatantly obvious to her. Reaching down, momentarily catching Luna off guard, until she saw what Angela was doing. Luna looked on with wonder in her eyes as Angela used her index claw to carve out a series of letters in the ground. She saw that the rest of the ponies seemed to be equally amazed by the sight of the wraith writing on the ground, and Angela felt her jaws form something only vaguely similar to a grin.

After a few moments, Angela was finished, and she backed away slightly to allow Luna and a fair number of other ponies to view the message.

It read simply as, "Sorry for almost killing you. Wanna be friends?"

Author's Note:

Finally! After well over a month I finally finished this chapter! And my God what it was in my behind.
I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, as it was a phenomenal pain in my behind to write certain parts of this down, particularly where Angela is struggling to retain control before Luna stepped in. That section went through so many rewrites and revisions to make it perfect that I could write a whole second fic containing just them. I'm not going to by the way.
Now know that this is not where it ends. I still have a bit more to squeeze out of this fic yet, and Angela is not quite out of the woods yet, so stay tuned.
I also wanted to add that my schedule has gotten a little bit clearer, and now that I'm past a difficult section in this story, updates should come on a more frequent basis. hopefully anyway, I'm not going to make any promises I can't keep.
Also, what you all think of the new cover image? I've been wanting to find one that depicted the wraith in all of its savage glory, but for the longest time I just stuck with the goliath footprint, even though the goliath never makes an appearance in this story. As soon as I found this one though, I knew it was just perfect.
Leave a comment below, and alert me to any mistakes I may have missed.